Taozi nodded, grinning at him.
The little witch child seemed to like Fu Shanyue better, even though the fellow never spoke with a pleasant tone.
Presumably, whichever person picked up a stray cat was the one it grew attached to.
He Lingchuan also overheard caravan members whispering outside. Apparently, three outcaste families had fled in the night; by early morning, not a soul was left in their homes, and all three had happened to be neighbors. The authorities had already ordered a pursuit of the dozen-plus outcastes.
With a slight jolt, the carriage started moving.
He Lingchuan lifted the curtain to look outside. Bathed in morning light, Tongluo County had not awakened at all. Since most businesses catered to the night trade, doors remained tightly shut everywhere except for a few small eateries and inns.
The bustling city that never slept last night was utterly exhausted in this morning's dawn.
Carriages and wagons rumbling, the Shimen caravan soon departed this strange county town.
With nothing better to do, Fu Shanyue held out a hand toward He Lingchuan. "Where's the medicine I told you to buy last night?"
He Lingchuan narrowed his eyes. "Told me?"
"Asked!" Fu Shanyue humbly corrected himself. "Where's the medicine I asked you to buy for me last night?"
Only then did He Lingchuan toss him an oiled-paper packet.
Fu Shanyue opened it, produced a small mortar from who-knew-where, and signaled the witch child Taozi to grind the herbs.
Once the herbs were ground into powder, he added water to mix it into a paste, then smeared it across Taozi's face.
The moment the medicine touched her skin, she felt an itch. By the time Fu Shanyue finally finished applying it, the itching had multiplied several times over.
Taozi couldn't resist reaching up to scratch, but he smacked her hand away. "If you want to live, don't touch your face!"
Of course she wanted to live, so she had no choice but to endure it.
After a quarter of an hour, Fu Shanyue finally allowed her to wash her face.
By now, the caravan had reached a post station on the northern outskirts of Tongluo County. Taozi hopped down and splashed water from the horse trough to wash her face, not forgetting to purse her lips so others wouldn't notice the wound on her mouth.
Even so, when other travelers saw her face, they gasped in alarm and shrank away one after another.
Puzzled, she peered into the water and saw a mottled face:
Patches of white blotches had broken out across her face, making her skin tone wildly uneven.
Once she climbed back into the carriage, Fu Shanyue said, "It's just disguised you with vitiligo. It'll peel off on its own in half a month, and you'll be fine."
As the itch gradually faded, Taozi suddenly pointed not far away and spoke for the first time: "Her... she's the one who sewed my mouth shut."
The two followed her gaze. A middle-aged woman was walking toward the back of the post station. There was nothing special about her clothes, but she leaned on a long staff.
Given her age and her nimble gait, using a walking staff seemed a bit odd.
"Is she the witch who labeled you an ill-omened fiend?"
"Yes!" Taozi said emphatically.
Fu Shanyue stretched lazily. "Stay here and don't move." Then he leaped down from the carriage and headed behind the post station as well.
Barely fifteen minutes later, he returned, his complexion looking a shade ruddier than before.
He Lingchuan even caught the faint scent of blood.
"You ate her?"
"Yeah." Fu Shanyue smiled and patted the crown of Taozi's head. "I ate the witch up."
Taozi's eyes sparkled at once.
He Lingchuan clicked his tongue. While nourishing himself, this fellow hadn't forgotten to win over a heart. It went to show that beneath his rough exterior lay a calculating mind; he was no reckless fool.
"Then what's with the hole in your sleeve?"
"I've only got one working arm—it's a bit inconvenient, isn't it?" Fu Shanyue yawned. "The witch managed to strike back. Greed aside, she did have a bit of skill."
The Twilight Plains remained as barren as ever. The few small towns and villages the caravan passed to replenish food and water were equally lifeless.
However, the terrain gradually rose. As the company pressed northward, standing atop the rolling hills and gazing into the distance, mountains stretched out before them.
The sun slowly dipped westward. Raising his horsewhip to point north, Second Master Shi said to He Lingchuan and the others, "Once we cross the first mountain, there'll be a place to rest for the night."
There was a small town there, plenty good for the night.
No sooner had he spoken than a wind picked up.
The caravan hadn't long left Wind Demon Mountain and was well accustomed to howling north winds, but this gale whipped up dense sand, dust, and twigs—far filthier than high mountain peaks—blowing so hard people could barely keep their eyes open.
If struggling to open one's eyes were all, that would be bad enough, but the sand seemed to have eyes of its own, forcing its way frantically into noses, ears, and collars.
At a time like this, opening one's mouth was completely out of the question; anyone who did was left spitting repeatedly.
Another fifteen minutes of travel, and the world grew dark.
The sun was clearly still there, but when they strained to look up through the murky yellow haze, all they could see was a faintly glowing duck egg.
Light vanished from heaven and earth. A sandstorm had arrived.
Second Master Shi covered his head and face with a cloth scarf, directing the caravan northward.
There were mountains to the north that could block the wind and sand. Moreover, this was the necessary route across the Twilight Plains to reach the Chiyan Kingdom in the north.
The caravan struggled forward with grueling difficulty. He Lingchuan also hopped down from the carriage to help. Circulating his gangqi, he was able to keep most of the windblown sand at bay.
At times like this, the benefits of advanced cultivation showed clearly.
Finally, relying on ample experience, the Shimen caravan found the entrance into the mountains.
Once inside the mountains, the wind and sand diminished noticeably.
Yet the forest was still tossed about violently, as if trees were about to be uprooted.
Thunder rumbled across the sky in several successive claps, terrifying the oxen and horses pulling the wagons.
Second Master Shi looked around, his expression solemn. A veteran caravan outrider from the Shimen caravan rushed over to him and bellowed into the wind, "Second Master, I think we took the wrong way! This is the road to the ruins!"
He Lingchuan happened to be standing beside them and heard every word clearly. "Which ruins?"
"Where else?" Second Master Shi yelled at the top of his lungs. "Thousand Stars City!"
The old capital of the Yuan Kingdom? A chill went through He Lingchuan's heart. Had the sandstorm blown them all the way here?
Everyone looked anxiously at Second Master Shi. "What do we do now?"
A small, skinny laborer who had let his guard down upon entering the mountains was nearly blown away by the wind, barely saved by grabbing the cargo straps in the nick of time.
Even by Second Master Shi's extensive merchant experience, this sandstorm was of terrifying magnitude. He had no other choice; he couldn't very well turn back to the plains to search for the right road in a storm where visibility was less than three zhang.
"Head for the ruins to take shelter! Hurry, hurry!"
The caravan pressed deep into the mountains.
After traveling several li uphill, the wind and sand weakened considerably, but rain came instead, pouring down without pause.
The laborers grumbled among themselves. "What kind of godforsaken weather is this!"
Only the witch child Taozi curled into a small ball inside the carriage, trembling all over, seemingly believing she had caused all of this.
Advancing several more li, the view opened up before them:
The mountain path came to an end, and the valley ahead could even be described as vast.
No, it was a basin, ringed on all sides by mountains.
The ruins Second Master Shi and the others had spoken of immediately caught He Lingchuan's eye in the basin below.
The caravan moved toward the basin. The trees here were actually denser than outside, perhaps because verdant waters wound through the basin. This abundant flow had once fed the moat of Thousand Stars City; now, it could only stream along in solitude.
An ancient road flickered in and out of sight amid the wild woods.
The caravan's wheels rumbled, crunching over withered branches and dead leaves. Looking down, He Lingchuan saw that this bluestone road had once been very wide—wide enough for at least five carriages abreast. Two hundred years ago, in the heyday of the Yuan Kingdom, this road must have teemed with horses and carriages, bustling with endless travelers.
Now, it lay dilapidated amid wild weeds and the fading daylight.
Only upon entering the basin did the grand scale of Thousand Stars City become apparent. Judging from the square foundations and stone perimeters, it had covered at least half the area of Panlong City. The base of the city gates in particular was remarkably wide and thick; imagining those bygone days, one wondered what an imposing spectacle it must have presented.
Yet the timber had long rotted away, and the few remaining stone walls were draped in climbing vines.
"This city was destroyed so thoroughly." There were scorch marks on the stones. Such a magnificent city, yet not a single decent structure remained—truly a tragic waste.
Even with wind erosion and water damage, some remnants should have survived, just like Panlong City back then.
"It's said that after Thousand Stars City fell back then, the Demon Emperor ordered everything burned and slaughtered, commanding that 'not an inch of timber remain standing,'" Second Master Shi called out over the pouring rain. "So every palace and pavilion, down to common dwellings and pigpens, was torn down. Nothing was spared."
The witch child Taozi suddenly pointed nearby, and He Lingchuan asked, "What's that?"
In fact, some fifty zhang away stood more than a dozen stone houses. They were wide and large, built without the slightest aesthetic sense, but sturdy.
One of them even had only three walls, the fourth side opening to the air.
Calling them houses was generous; they were more like warehouses or storehouses.
"Traveling merchants built them over time using materials found right here," Second Master Shi said. "Over the years, quite a few have piled up."
He Lingchuan said in surprise, "So it's not like nobody comes here."
"The mountain terrain is complicated, and travelers often take a wrong turn. Since they're here, they make the best of it—everyone needs a place to shelter from wind and rain." Second Master Shi ordered the caravan to drive the carriages into several stone houses, settle the men, and inspect the cargo.
Merchants followed profit wherever it led; even a ghost city could serve as a stopover.
A good deal of thatch was already piled inside the stone houses. The caravan's physician brought out several basins, filled them with dry grass and wormwood, and lit them to fumigate the area. Otherwise, the damp miasma here was heavy and crawling with snakes, insects, and mosquitoes; sit or lie on the thatch for half a cup of tea's time, and you'd be covered in red welts.
In severe cases, one might even contract the chills or run a high fever.
As the smoke thickened, all sorts of small critters scrambled to flee the stone houses, including several venomous banded kraits.
They had no choice but to spend the night in this ghost city. The caravan began setting up cauldrons to cook.
Once the water boiled, grain and sweet potatoes were tossed in all at once, followed later by greens and mushrooms, producing a thick, steaming pot of vegetable porridge.
Everyone had marched hard all day. Lifting their coarse bowls, they slurped greedily, accompanied by a couple of steamed buns and bites of pickled vegetables. Suddenly, a rainy night in the wilderness didn't seem so miserable after all.
As night dragged on toward the late hours, the storm only intensified. Lightning flashed intermittently, illuminating the surrounding wilderness before trailing long rumbles of thunder.
Wrapped in his cloak with head and face concealed, Fu Shanyue had remained motionless for a long time. Just when others thought he had fallen asleep, he abruptly sat up.
"Someone's coming."
Sure enough, more than a dozen figures emerged from the low woods one after another, heading toward the cluster of stone houses.
The Shimen caravan's sentries immediately blew their whistles, shouting for everyone to stay on guard.
The newcomers were also a traveling company, consisting of twelve or thirteen riders, a carriage, and two monsters. They approached at an unhurried pace. One rider raised his whip, rode forward, and called out to the Shimen caravan: "Just sharing the wild mountain for company! We leave at daybreak!"
This was common parlance among wilderness travelers to show they only meant to stay the night with no ill intent.
The newcomer company then moved twelve or thirteen zhang away and occupied two of the other stone houses.
Chapter 413